Pik Kommunizma – no way up
“When you’re up there, just take a picture. Or more, no problem! It’s for the certificate you know…”. We’re sitting in the Uttmost Adventure Trekking offices in Kathmandu and sipping their ginger tea. A pile of hundred-dollar bills is exchanged for the paper with the expedition permit. Good! Now we only have to climb that thing. But no problem there, Manaslu is an easy eight-thousander…
Image first: 12.9.2014 – Basecamp(4800m)
You’ve just got to be kidding me! I stare helplessly at the broken tent pole. First five minutes in the basecamp and this? My only tent, it can’t be happenning… The journey up here was pure nightmare with my overloaded backpack, flu, cough, fever and i don’t know what else. It’s been raining for the last four days and the forecast is even worse for the future. And now that stupid pole! You know, when you go for a trip like this, things usually go wrong. Some things, that’s normal. Part of the game. But this expedition is in it’s second week now and i can’t recall anything going right so far. Anything at all. And the summit of the world’s eighth highest mountain sure looks very, very distant…
Image second: 25.9.2014 – Camp 3 (6800m)
It snows and snows and snows without interruption for hours. From time to time, a heavy-clad figure with a large metal bottle on it’s back struggles by, dissapearing slowly in the mist bellow. Shit! So that’s why they were all in such a hurry to reach the camp 4 yesterday! Today’s the last summit day and the window is closing. Our window… There are only loads of fresh snow and countless gusts of jetsteam winds left with us in the camp 3. The summit push is over – there’s no way we can stay up here for much longer. Shit! And tomorrow we’re going to spend endless hours wading through those avalanche-prone slopes and pulling out the burried fixed ropes on our way down. But fortunately, i don’t know that yet… No, this is definitely not the way to climb an eight-thousander. Hope i still have some strength left for one more push…
Image third: 1.10.2014 – The summit (8156m)
They got me. The entire group! I was doing my best, but ever since the eight-thousand mark it’s like walking against the wall and the guys with oxygen bottles didn’t give me the chance. Oh well, looks like i’m going to be alone on the summit again. So what? I can take the picture myself, no problem. Right, and i should start filming something as well so there are some memories left. The summit ridge, for example. That’ll look good on the video, wouldn’t it? And the last steps of course! Especially the last steps! I’ve been thinking about this shot, about this moment of triumph for ages. About every detail of it. And the only thing i’m capable of now, when i’m actually here, is to collapse on the thick wad of prayer flags and gasp for air. The moment of triumph… Shit, why didn’t i melt at least some water in the camp 4? It’s much easier when you’re not dehydrated, you know… Ok, no more thinking. It’s about time to go back…
The summary
Two out of the five members of our minimalistic expedition reached the summit of Manaslu on the 1st October 2014. Me, at about ten in the morning, and Larry some two and a half hours later. Needless to say that neither of us used supplemental oxygen or any other form of additional support. The expedition probably established some kind of a world record by stripping the budget down to 4000USD per person (including the flights and food), which is something quite unique on an 8000m peak full of commercial groups paying five times as much. It also meant a lot of compromise decisions (no weather forecast, only one porter each, no basecamp support…), which didn’t exactly make the whole thing easier. But we knew it was possible within these limits and in the end were lucky enough to succeed.
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